Sunday, April 20, 2008

Life Card Ladies Golf Tournament Sunday: It's Yukari Baba for the Win

The top 3 players in the Life Card Ladies JLPGA event this week were closely bunched as they made the turn. Midori Yoneyama had recovered from her late-Saturday struggles and had 4 birdies and only 1 bogey through her first 11 holes to get to get to -7 for the tournament. First-round leader Shinobu Moromizato also had come strong out of the gates, reaching -6 through the 11th hole thanks to 4 birdies and no bogeys. But second-round leader Yukari Baba, despite a bogey on the second hole that had offset her opening birdie, had gotten to -7 herself with a birdie on the 10th. Moromizato was the first to fall off the pace with a bogey on the 12th that produced a 2-shot swing with Baba, who birdied the hole to open up a 1-shot lead on Yoneyama. But it was the 13th hole that was the decisive one. The 3-shot swing produced by a Baba hole-in-one and a Yoneyama bogey made the last 5 holes a formality. The only drama was whether Baba would remain in double digits under par. Here's the top 10:

With her win, Baba jumped to #5 on the JLPGA money list, behind Yamaguchi, Song, Shin, and Yokomine. Rounding out the top 10 are Koga, Lee, Fudoh, Moromizato, and Uehara. Momoko Ueda is now down to #31 on the list, about ¥18M behind the leaders, but it's looking more and more like she's committed to the Rookie of the Year race on the LPGA in 2008.